Important Essendon midfield duo Dyson Heppell and Devon Smith have been declared fit and ready to face West Coast at Optus Stadium on Thursday.

Heppell suffered a concussion in the side’s defeat of Brisbane before the bye, but Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow said the in-form captain has passed all necessary tests ahead of the big clash.

“Our doctors put in place the protocols they use to monitor their recovery and make sure he returns to normal and is safe to return,” Crow said in the SKINS Injury Update on Tuesday.

“One of those is a CogSport test, which is a test that uses a baseline from the pre-season.

“Dyson’s passed that test, he trained well yesterday (and) we’re expecting him to be good to go for the game against the West Coast Eagles.”

Smith has been in outstanding form in his first season at The Hangar and Crow confirmed that scans following the interstate victory had yielded positive results.

“Devon had a kick to the calf during the game, which we knew about, it was reasonably early in the game,” he said.

“It’s not impossible to get a knock and then strain your calf afterwards because of the blood in the area. Fortunately that hasn’t happened, it was just a kick in the calf.

“Devon trained well yesterday and he’ll be available to play.”

While young gun Jordan Ridley will have to prove his fitness in the coming days if he is to return from a minor knee injury, fellow defender Patrick Ambrose is likely to take the field for the VFL Bombers this week.

“(Ambrose’s) calf injury is progressing well, he also did a fair bit of the session yesterday.

“Pat will be available, all going well, for the VFL match on Sunday given that this game on Thursday we believe to be too short of a turnaround.”

Midfielders Darcy Parish and David Zaharakis continue to make progress in their recovery from respective surgeries. Crow said Parish could be available in three weeks after building up his training next week, while Zaharakis will be eyeing a return towards round 20.

The news wasn’t as encouraging for Marty Gleeson, who has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation.

“Last time we spoke (he) had an x-ray which showed good healing of his ankle injury.
The CT scan, which took place the next day, showed about an 80 per-cent heal,” Crow said.

“This led the surgeon to advise that we take longer before getting him out of the moon boot and Marty’s been gradually progressing out of the boot over a six-week period, which he’s about two and a half weeks into now.

“So that sets Marty back a little bit, but all going well his best case would be to return in finals at this stage.”

Crow said he was “really happy” with the way the squad has returned following the short bye and is expecting a strong performance against the Eagles.

“We obviously had an opportunity to get some good recovery in during this break heading into (the match against) West Coast and then the following break coming out of the Thursday game,” he said.

“So rather than put the guys all the way to sleep we’ve had some good recovery, but some good opportunities to just train with some intensity.

“The guys had running to do on their time off and then back at the club on Saturday for a really sharp hit-out with some high-speed work into training on Monday, which went well. And then getting ready to head over to Perth and give it a really good go.”